Black Lagoon - New Relationship
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: After what Rock did with that mess with the Lovelace kid and Roberta, is it any surprise Revy wants to be left alone? Unfortunately for her, Rock won't leave her alone... and changes everything.


I don't own Black Lagoon, just this story and the others I've written.

Please feel free to leave feedback.

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New Relationship.

"Revy-," Rock called out, hurrying after the girl who was moving off of the boat with her arm in a cast.

Hearing the sound of his voice, Revy paused for a moment, a brief second before she sped up. She had nothing to say to Rock, and she didn't want to listen to him speak. Not right now.

She was too wired, too angry to really care what he had to say to her, and besides what could he say after all of this? Her mind went back to the moment where she had punched him when he had told her how he had changed everything, sounding very much like a jack-ass who got off on manipulating people from behind the scenes.

Rock had changed.

She hated that, but she had to admit he had changed in a way she couldn't stand. Yeah, she wanted him to get used to life in Roanapur, become tougher, but she wanted him to be tough in the same manner that Benny was, but she didn't want him to manipulate people, and get off on it, and spout off shit as those Nazis had.

"Leave me alone," Revy called back, her voice grinding each word out like the contents of a cement mixer, only each word that came out of Revy's mouth was full of rage.

Rock winced, seeing that he had pushed the woman too far. Part of him wondered if perhaps it would have been a better idea if he had just waited until a few days had passed, but he couldn't wait. He had to apologise, to find a way to make it up with Revy. He took a deep breath as she did his best to keep up with Revy, but even when injured she was still fast enough to get away from him.

Rock took in her pained expression, and she wondered how much of it was physical pain rather than emotional; he blamed himself for both since he had dragged her and the rest of the Lagoon company into this mess. "Revy, I am so sorry," he tried to say, but Revy kept walking. He saw the way she was grinding her teeth, her mouth quivering as she took one step after another and Rock wondered to himself just how much pain she was in.

But he had said the wrong thing, and he winced when she crashed to a halt and glared at him with a glare he hadn't received from her even during the early days he had been stuck in Roanapur when his own boss practically handed him over on a plate.

"Sorry?" she shrieked. "You think after everything you've done, you…..?!" she screamed in anger.

Rock tried hard not to flinch and step back, already feeling the aches from where Revy had punched him hurt him even more as if the wounds were agreeing with her. "Revy, please," he begged.

"I don't want to listen to you!" she yelled, glaring at him much like a vicious dog who had been punched in the head with a knuckle duster and still forced to be standing like an angry sentinel. Only this dog was human, and she was yelling at him and was on the cusp of losing it completely. "Do you really think a 'sorry' is going to help? If you do, you've even more whacked than I thought," Revy said, her voice now much lower and darker.

Rock was starting to wish he had just left Revy alone, but he couldn't. He had to explain himself to her whether she wanted him to or not. "It's the only way I can Revy," he carried on, hoping that the near-whisper of Revy's voice was a sign that he could speak to her and say something that would finally get through to her, "I'm sorry about everything. I really am. I'm sorry so many things happened, like you getting hurt."

"You think that's what's pissing me off?" Revy snapped, looking at him with a sudden pity while she shook her head. "Nah, what's not what's pissed me off, or Dutch or Benny even if they've taken a step back from everything, Rock," she looked down, flinching in pain. Her arm that was in a cast was aching more than she had wanted.

"Huh?" Rock asked, looking at her dumbly.

Revy lifted her head and gazed at him with pity in her eyes. "Don't you get it, Rock? None of us wanted to get involved with this mess. None of us wanted to get involved with the Lovejoys again, or their psychotic maids - don't say it, I know I'm crazy, but that bitch Roberta is crazier than I am - but we did, because of you! We didn't want to get involved with the USA. But we did, because of you."

"Revy-," Rock tried to interrupt.

But Revy shook her head. "Shut up! Shut the fuck up! You have changed Rock. You're different now… you're so different. You kept trying to say you were going to change Roanapur. Did you really think all of this would be so simple?"

"No, I fucking didn't, Revy!" Rock snapped, his exhaustion bleeding through as he was starting to lose his own temper though he was doing his best to hold it back. "I was exhausted, Revy. I had spent ages coming up with the plan in the first place. I didn't want to get involved with Garcia or Roberta again, but I did."

"Yeah, you did, but why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you get us involved with this mess in the first place?" Revy clarified, subtly reminding Rock of how Benny and Dutch had not wanted to get too involved and had wanted nothing more than to remain on the sidelines regardless of whatever Chang wanted since he had his own agenda, and they hadn't factored into it. "None of us wanted to; why did you?"

Rock sighed under his breath. "I wanted things to change, Revy," he admitted quietly, wanting to voice both his wants and his desires for Revy since he felt she would be the only one to truly and properly appreciate and understand them. "Do you remember Yukio?" he went on, surprising her. He could see by the expression on her face she did remember the heiress to the Yakuza family, the Washimine group.

"So what? What about her?" Revy asked, her expression clearly wondering where this was heading.

"I saw her commit suicide when the odds were against her; Revy, I did my best to make that girl trust us, I tried to make her understand I was a friend; instead she didn't see anything wrong using me as bait when she was sucked in by the Yakuza. You hear things about the Yakuza when you live in Tokyo, Revy; most of it is either hushed up, relegated to the same level as alligators in a sewer, or a batty old cat-lady leaving everything to the cats in her home, but you know its real. I didn't want her in that world, but it was too late. I failed to help Yukio, she became sucked into it and became just another gangster even after everything that had happened to her, how she had been kidnapped," Rock said, going over ground Revy already knew about, but he hoped by telling her about how he had felt during those moments, he might be able to make her see things from his perspective.

"She came back to her senses, but she killed herself," he finished sadly.

Revy's voice was, to an outside observer, brutal and to the point but to anybody else who knew her, there was a surprising empathy in her voice something very few people would have expected out of her mouth considering her attitudes. "I told you not to look when she killed herself, Rock," she told him. "But you didn't listen. And," she decided to put all her cards on the table, "I told you not to get involved with the whole mess; we should have just left Balalaika to it since it was her problem."

Rock knew that deep down. "I know, but I had to watch, Revy," he told her, looking at her deep in the eyes so he could impart how he was really feeling about that mess. "I had tried to get her to see she no longer had to do what she was doing, but it didn't work."

"No, it didn't work, Rock. It didn't work because you were in way over your head. It didn't work because you were poking your nose into the world of the Yakuza," Revy replied harshly, knowing it was low of her to remind him of that but she was sick and tired of Rock thinking he had to solve everybody's problems for them instead of simply letting them handle it on their own. Rule one - Never tangle with gangsters. It was a rule she had long since known since she was young, and she had stuck to it ever since. Didn't Rock realise the girl had already been lost? She had been a part of that world for as long as she could remember. Yeah, she had tried to escape it, but she knew deep down she couldn't, and when she had to take control of the group, that was it.

Rock glared at her angrily. "That was a low blow, Revy-!" he tried to say angrily, but Revy interrupted him.

"I don't care, Rock," she snapped before she decided to aim for other posts on the body. "Rock why do you always have to get involved?"

"You're saying I should have just left Roberta to it, is it what you're saying" Rock argued as he fully got involved and immersed in this fight.

"You've got it at last!" Revy laughed, gazing at him mockingly. "Didn't take you so long, did it?"

"Revy, I-," Rock started, but again Revy interrupted him which only served to piss him off even more. He wished she wouldn't keep doing that, but he had no idea what Revy was going to say next as she suddenly remembered something he had overheard him saying earlier but had pushed out of her mind.

"What were you trying to say about wanting things to change, Rock?" she asked, looking at him curiously.

Rock was surprised Revy was bringing that up. He had hoped to clarify what he was talking about earlier, and what he had been trying to change, but Revy had spoken over him and the conversation had not gone the way he had hoped, so it had been pushed to the back of his mind. He realised he had essentially pushed her away with what had happened recently, but he had to try to really make her see for herself what it was he'd had in mind. "I was trying to change Roanapur, Revy," he said, looking at her with a sudden need and seriousness that she had never in all the time they had known each other seen before now. "I wanted to change everything, but it didn't start like that at first. I didn't want to get involved with the USA; even I'm not that stupid, but I wanted to try to help Garcia. I really like the kid, though I doubt the feeling is reciprocated now after what I've done."

Revy was silent as she listened, mentally agreeing with him on that one considering what his manipulations had nearly done, nearly caused the Lovelace kid his life.

"But as time passed… I felt that I could make things change in Roanapur. Revy," he suddenly said, looking at her, the plea right there in his expression, "I wanted them to change. Don't try to deny it, I've seen the weariness in you and the others whenever we get involved with one of Balalaika's schemes? Or what about that bastard Chang?" Revy raised an eyebrow, impressed with Rock for mouthing off about two of the largest bosses of Roanapur, though it was the first-ever time she had ever heard him do so in all the time she had known him; she had never once hesitated to complain about either Chang or Balalaika, though she would never do so to their faces since they have her killed and cut to pieces before she even had a moment to blink.

She paid more attention to the conversation when Rock looked like he was waiting for her to react, but when she didn't, he went on. "I wanted to make things better," he finished, sounding like a beseeching husband begging his wife to see things from his point of view.

Revy listened to him closely, and he went on encouraged by her silence.

"I felt with change the city wouldn't feel like a war zone," Rock carried on, "I also wanted to help Garcia; the poor kid never deserved to find out what his maid was in a different identity. That's how it started, I mean it Revy. But when time passed I saw ways Roanapur could change. The psychopaths could be kicked out of the place at last, and we wouldn't have to worry about getting knifed or shot every time we got a job."

Revy shook her head as she looked at him pityingly. She could understand the idealistic dream in Rock's mind.

Rock sighed sadly as another memory coalesced in his head. "Do you remember Hansel and Gretel?"

Revy grimaced as she remembered the two mad 'vampire twins,' who had cut a path of murder and torture against Balalaika after they'd been hired to go after Hotel Moscow. Brave, but incredibly dangerous.

"Yeah, I remember them," she ground out, her mind conjuring up the two pint-sized little creeps, with their gothic clothing, their white hair, pale skin, and the way they spoke… Just thinking about it was enough to make even Revy shudder with revulsion. But what she remembered the most was her own confrontation with the girl Gretel. She remembered how the girl had said they were just the same, only Revy didn't believe that; yeah, they shared a lot in common, but Revy wasn't deliberately sick or creepy. No way.

She had never found out what Rock had learnt after being in that little cabin with the girl, listening to her sing in that creepy but strangely hauntingly beautiful way. Revy remembered how she had wanted to put a stop to it because it was just plain too haunting for her to listen to.

Rock looked down. "Balalaika had them both killed, and yeah they had suffered a lot, but once _she was killed _I had had enough of it. I was tired of the never-ending waste of life, and those two kids could have been helped in some way; they just didn't have the chance."

"Rock, those two kids were too far gone," Revy tried to say, but Rock beat her to the punch. "Yeah, they were. So was Roberta, and yet she loves Garcia Lovelace to the point where she would willingly drop her weapons for him. But Hansel and Gretel had been tortured by the Romanian mob-."

"And other kids weren't?" Revy shouted hotly, losing her temper with him again and letting it flare out warningly to let him know he was crossing a line with her. Rock wasn't stupid; she had dropped off enough hints about her past over the time they had known each other for him to deduce what had happened to her as a child, and yet her own traumas were being ignored in favour of two kids.

Okay, she knew she was being harsh.

Revy knew Hansel and Gretel had gone through things even _she _had not, and indeed when she had learnt the basics of their past, she had wondered to herself, really wondered, what she would have done had she been in the same place as they were; raped, forced to perform sick acts day in and day out, would she have gone as mad as they had, or would she have become even worse than what she already was? Revy had not held back from making sure the sick fucks who'd made her childhood a misery had paid the price, so she was willing to bet she would have turned out a little darker than Hansel and Gretel had, only much less creepily.

But what infuriated her the most, what really pissed her off the most was the fact Rock seemed to be dismissing the fact not every child grew up with a silver spoon in their mouths.

Rock back-peddled as he realised what he had just said, but Revy had no sympathy for him. She was just pissed off now. "Those two were psychotic-," she began, but Rock bravely interrupted her.

"And Roberta isn't?" Rock interrupted, looking pointedly at her. "She _torched_ The Yellow Flag, I'd be surprised if Yao doesn't piss himself at night thinking of her."

Revy snorted. She had to concede that Rock did have a point. Roberta had a strong reputation in Roanapur now; not only had the woman purposefully shot up the city, but she had also beaten Revy in a fight. One on one. "But Roberta is a trained soldier in comparison," she pointed out to Rock, "those two were just killers."

"I know," Rock replied as he clenched and unclenched his hands. He was about two minutes away from completely ripping out his hair in clumps because Revy simply wasn't getting it. So he decided to lay all his cards on the table.

Rock took a deep breath while Revy watched him, wondering clearly what he had on his mind this time. "I hate Roanapur, Revy," he began, though she didn't know why he was bothering to say something everyone else felt. Very few people in the city liked the place, though only those who truly thrived in the city liked it compared to places outside Thailand. "But I prefer it to what I had to live in before I met you, Dutch, and Benny. At least with you, I don't always feel like another drone, one of a hundred thousand who get spat on every day."

Revy was becoming tired of this conversation now. She was tired and she was sore, and she had no idea how long it would be before her arm actually healed. "Rock, this is interesting, but-," she tried to say as she began to walk away, hoping to put some distance between her and Rock, but right then Rock surprised her.

"I did it because I love you, Revy," he said quietly as if he were hoping that she would not hear him, but she did hear him.

Revy stopped and turned around, her expression shocked. "You…you love me?" she asked in disbelief, however, there was something there as well which gave him hope.

She hoped he was telling her the truth, though it did hurt him she would think he was pulling one over her eyes. Did she really think that of him? Yeah, he might have cocked things up at this point, but did she really have that impression of him?

Rock nodded. "Yeah, I do," he said quietly, looking at her earnestly before he stepped forward and gently caressed her face in one hand and stared deeply into her eyes.

But he was unprepared for what she did next. She slapped him in the face, and while he was seeing stars from the blow, she was shouting at him.

"HOW DARE YOU! I have just been through hell, seeing you manipulate people, all so then you could have a utopia which was never going to happen in the first place! Do you really _think _you could have changed Roanapur? Get a clue, Rock. Nothing can change Roanapur. Not you, not me, not anybody. The place is a shithole! The only way things can change will be if someone gets smart, and drops a nuke on the place."

Rock groaned as he felt the pain from the slap, though it didn't take him long to get over it. He was just glad that in her current state, as much as it pained him to admit since how big a part _he had _in getting her into this mess and getting injured in the first place since it had been his plan, after all, she didn't have the strength to really pummel him.

As he listened to her go on, Rock realised with a sinking heart that not only might he have been wrong and developed a Napoleon complex in trying to get Ronapur to change, but she might not love him as he did her.

Revy looked down at him and then walked away.

Rock watched her go with a sinking feeling in his chest, and he wondered if this was heartbreak….

But then Revy turned back and turned her head around, and they locked eyes with one another. They stared at one another deeply, and then a crooked smirk crossed her beautiful face. "C' mon Rock, get up!" she called back.

Rock scrambled to his feet and ran after her.

Yeah, their old relationship might have taken a battering, but there was a chance that they could start over. At least that was what he hoped for.


End file.
